<p>Hello everyone, I am currently an ME senior at UMass Amherst. It's been a bad experience for me to find either an internship or a full-time job, so I figured I should continue with my education going into a grad school. I would like to go for aerospace, now leaning towards doing a thesis (not totally sure yet). I do not have a research experience in college and I have only had one internship that is in the IE field. GPA 3.37. And I just recently started studying for the GRE and I am looking to apply for the fall 2015 program. I am just worried that since my research and intern experience is so little and I don't have a perfect GPA, what range of schools should I be reasonably aiming for? (excluding the tuition for now)</p>
<p>My interest is in the propulsion/jet engine regime and can anyone give me some schools so I can get some idea and start looking? I tried searching online but it's hard to really tell the difference of each program at different school. All I can say is I am really lost and overwhelmed by all the grad programs and how to choose the one that suits me :(</p>
<p>Admissions to Phd programs in engineering/science is based on:</p>
<p>(1) GPA in your major, courses related to degree goal.
(2) Letters of recommendation from faculty who know you well, preferably in a research/internship context, or in an upper division advanced class. Letters from professors who taught you in lower division lecture classes are USELESS.
(3) GRE scores, general and in some fields, subject tests.
(4) Research and/or related internship experiences. Extra bonus if research has led to a publication in respected journal, or at least a presentation at a conference.
(5) Statement of purpose.</p>
<p>Nothing else matters. You don’t need to be perfect in all 5 of those measures. Many good candidates have weakness in one area. The very best programs expect strength in all 5 measures. Great schools in 4 measures. In good, but not great programs, you can have weaknesses in 3 areas, Beyond that, you don’t have a choice.</p>
<p>You have not specified if a Masters or a Ph.D. If a Masters, then there are two kinds of programs, professional Masters or research oriented degrees. Getting into a professional Masters program does not require research experience but work experience is a plus. A research oriented masters degree, like a Ph.D. will have the requirements suggested by @harvard<em>and</em>berkeley. If you don’t have research experience you will be at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>As a final note, getting into a Ph.D. program should not be a substitute for finding a job. If you are not passionate about research then you don’t want to invest up to 6 years in a Ph.D. when you could be earning a significant salary as an engineer. Bottom line, keep looking for an entry level position. They are out there and your GPA is strong enough to get you a second look. Go to your Career Center and get help on your resume and practice interviewing.</p>
<p>Sorry I forgot to say that for now I am only planning to get my masters. But both of you do sound like that I am going for a PhD degree, do most people go for a PhD after they finish their masters?
Again, I have not thought that far yet but I think I may very likely go for the research path and PhD is not entirely ruled out yet.</p>
<p>Can anyone give me a list of average-good aerospace graduate programs?
I’d really appreciate the help since I have no idea how to narrow down my selection.</p>
<p>Actually, most Masters degrees are professional ones and are terminal. Particularly in engineering. You should only go for a Ph.D. if you really want to do research. It takes a long time and you could be working and earning a good salary instead.</p>
<p>A good place to start is the US News site for Aerospace Engineering. If you want to look for smaller programs, look into some of the [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools which have AE programs. If you do decide that research is your primary interest, look up the published research of faculty members in the field and consider the universities of the research you find most interesting.</p>
<p>Don’t ignore the option of a Mechanical Engineering degree because thre are lots of jobs in the aerospace industry which do not require having specifically and Aerospace Engineering degree.</p>
<p>So you are saying that for engineering graduate school, you either go for a professional masters (the non-thesis plan) or a PhD?</p>
<p>You actually raised a very interesting point, because I really want to work in the aerospace industry after I graduate and I have been reading a lot about choosing an ME degree or AE degree, there has been a lot of discussion on the Internet.
Choosing in between these two has also been a real hard decision for me and I am not entirely sure if AE would be the way to go, just like you said, a lot of aerospace jobs that are looking for ME grads.
So hypothetically, would you say these two people have the similar set of skill for a job in aerospace industry?
<p>If the job requires specific coursework then the AE probably has an advantage, however, in general the ME is more flexible and will be competitive for more jobs. After the first job, it is more a question of your experience than what major you had in college.</p>
<p>So how exactly should I look for published paper? I think there is a site where professors and students publish their research, right? Can you or anyone give me some guild?</p>